Koch Pledges Inquiry on Arrests by Transit Police

Likening the incident to a tale out of Kafka, Mayor Koch said yesterday that the New York City Police Department would investigate accusations that four transit police officers made scores of false or improper arrests on the Lexington Avenue subway and other lines during 1983 and 1984.

The Mayor said the inquiry would be conducted by the Police Department's internal affairs division. It would focus not only on the officers, two of whom are still members of the Transit Police Department, but also on the role of James Meehan, then its chief.

Mr. Koch also called for the special state prosecutor for the city's criminal justice system, Charles J. Hynes, to determine why the officers did not face criminal or departmental charges. And Rudolph W. Giuliani, the United States Attorney in Manhattan, will be asked to look into whether there had been violations of Federal civil-rights laws, according to the city's First Deputy Mayor, Stanley Brezenoff.

''I had the feeling that I was reading a Kafka novel,'' the Mayor said, ''that people who were not guilty, just simply getting caught up in the toils of the law, might plead guilty rather than to fight the case.''

The City Council President, Andrew J. Stein, also called yesterday for an investigation of the arrests, which were said to have been made to raise the officers' totals so they could get better assignments. Mr. Stein also urged that the City Police Department take the Transit Police under its control, a proposal long favored by the Mayor.

Until such a merger could be accomplished, Mr. Stein said, the Transit Authority should expand its existing civilian complaint review board to include members of the public, as does the city department's board. Stewart Case Cited

''The discipline within the T.A. is nonexistent,'' said Mr. Stein, who also referred to another 1983 case - that of Michael Stewart, the man accused of scrawling graffiti in a subway station who died after being taken into custody by transit police officers.

''No matter what a T.A. cop does,'' the Council President said, ''he is not disciplined.''

Mr. Stein was joined at a City Hall news conference by Thomas Dargan, a retired lieutenant in the Transit Police internal affairs unit whose 1984 investigation of the four officers concluded that they had made ''wrongful arrests'' and lied about them. Also present was Ronald Yeadon, a New York City police officer who was arrested by one of the officers and whose Federal lawsuit for ''malicious prosecution'' prompted the disclosure of the report.

According to Mr. Dargan, the officers often arrested black or Hispanic men. Those listed as complainants frequently were white women, many of whom said they did not know they were crime victims until informed by the officers or did not realize they had pressed charges until the court papers came in the mail. #18 Percent Convicted The four officers, he found, accounted for 18 percent of the entire department's sexual-abuse arrests and 10 percent of its attempted grand larceny arrests during a 12-month period.

In the 145 cases for which Mr. Dargan and his staff obtained dispositions, 18 percent of the defendants were convicted of the crime charged, 53 percent pleaded guilty to lesser charges and 30 percent were found not guilty or had their cases dismissed.

''It looks to me like the District Attorney did in fact dismiss a lot of cases and did make an attempt to help out defendants in some cases who were wrongfully arrested,'' said Richard D. Emery, a civil-rights attorney representing Officer Yeadon. ''But many, many innocent people fell through the cracks and wound up pleading guilty to lesser charges.''

Mr. Dargan sent his report in 1984 to the office of the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, but was told there was not enough evidence to prosecute the officers for perjury. He said he was prepared to recommend that the officers be brought up on departmental charges but was instructed to close the case and file his report.

The inquiry was reopened by Vincent DelCastillo, who became Acting Transit Police Chief this year, after he was questioned by reporters from The New York Times and WNBC-TV about the case last week.

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Neither Mr. DelCastillo, Robert R. Kiley, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or David L. Gunn, the president of the Transit Authority, knew about the investigation or the report, according to their spokesmen, until that time. Theory About Motivation

Tom Kelly, a spokesman for Mr. Koch, said the Mayor had first learned of the report when he read the Tuesday edition of The New York Times on Monday night.

Mr. Dargan, who believes the officers were motivated by a system that gave better assignments to those making the most arrests, said he would meet today to discuss his investigation with the current head of the Transit Authority internal affairs unit, Michael J. O'Connor.

Albert O'Leary, a spokesman for the Transit Police Department, said he did not know whether a system such as Mr. Dargan described was in effect at District Four, at the 14th Street-Union Square Station, where the officers were assigned. However, he said the number of arrests is only ''a small part'' of what is now considered when an officer is promoted.

''We expect people to be productive, but we expect the quality of arrests to be good,'' he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kiley yesterday asked the M.T.A. Inspector General, Sanford Russell, to ''make a full review of this matter.''

''In particular, I want him to find out what happened when the report was finished,'' Mr. Kiley said. ''Where did it go, who made decisions. It just seems to have disappeared into a black hole, which is shocking.''

Two of the officers - William Corkran and Edward Lacey - have retired; a third, Mary McDermott, is on leave, and the fourth, Alphonse Iannacone, is now on plainclothes anti-crime duty in Manhattan and the Bronx. None wished to comment on the case, according to Mr. O'Leary. 'An Isolated Charge'

''We are talking about an isolated charge against four cops out of 4,000,'' said William McKechnie, president of the New York City Transit Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. ''There is no indication that this is systemic.''

Telephone calls to Mr. Meehan, who retired earlier this year as head of the Transit Police Department, were not answered yesterday.

At least one lawsuit filed by a defendant in a case instigated by one of the officers has been settled by the Transit Authority for $10,000. Another lawsuit filed by another of the arrested men, Robert Young, ended in a $400,000 jury award last March. The award is being appealed by the Transit Authority.

Mr. Young said he was on his way to a night class at Baruch College on Feb. 2, 1984, when Officer Iannacone pulled him off a train at the 14th Street-Union Square Station and charged him with sexual abuse - a charge he denied. He was offered a chance to plead guilty to a lesser charge but refused, he said. The case was eventually dropped when the woman listed as the complainant failed to appear in court.

The head of a day-care center in Far Rockaway, Queens, Mr. Young said he feels he has been branded by his arrest. ''How do I explain this?'' he said.

His lawyer, Michael Rikon, said he had never been notified by the District Attorney's office that arrests by Officer Iannacone were under investigation. ''I certainly would have liked to have had that information when I went to trial,'' he said.

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A version of this article appears in print on November 25, 1987, on Page A00001 of the National edition with the headline: Koch Pledges Inquiry on Arrests by Transit Police. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe